Behind locked doors
by Py-Cries
Summary: Ban wonders how he could have been so blind.


In retrospect Ban wonders how he could not have noticed. Now that he knows, it is so painfully obvious that it made him question his intelligence. How could he have ever saved the world if he did not notice something as banal and simple as his two best friends going out?

* * *

Once after a long, exhausting training match with Ran she had asked him if he did not feel like a third wheel with Kazu and Ami being all lovey-dovey to each other. Ban had waved it off laughing since that thought was completely absurd, wasn't it? They had known each other since elementary school so of course such a thing was out of question, love between childhood friends only happened in the sappy romance movies Ami hated so much (Ban knew for a fact that Kazu didn't mind them too much). Ran had just stared at him incredulously but left it at that since she "didn't know them as well as he did".

* * *

He would have continued to live in this beautiful world where everything made sense, had he not decided to take a break of catching up with his studies (saving the world does keep you busy after all) and planned to visit Kazu. Maybe play some games, watch a movie or something but Kazu was not home and his mother had nicely sent Ban to Ami where she believed her son to currently be. Which was weird. Because Ami and Kazu never hung out together. Without him that is. They were a trio so they always met up together. Sure Ban and Kazu sometimes met up, but that was because they needed to catch up on boy things which would be too embarrassing in front of a girl; Ami had girl friends aswell with whom she would meet to drink smoothies and talk about things Ban and Kazu were not interested in. But Ami and Kazu? It was weird.

So he stopped by Ami's place and her mother let him in and sent him upstairs to Ami's room. Ban had been here a few times but he still did not feel entirely comfortable in the very open and very white house. He stopped in front of a door he believed was Ami's and took a breath because what if they didn't want him there and that's why they met up in private without him? He opened the door anyway and immediately wished he hadn't.

On Ami's very fluffy and soft bed said girl was currently straddling his best friend. Ban turned the deepest shade of red, redder than Ran's hair, when he noticed that neither of his friends were wearing shirts anymore (Ami still wore her bra, _thank God_).

Ban fled the scene while mumbling a quick apology. (He still heard Kazu panicking when he banged the door close.)

And that's how he found out.

* * *

At the moment he sits at the riverside where Rina had given him AX-00. And now that he thinks about it, Ami and Kazu really always made a good combination in all of the adventures they had experienced. But them being a couple was really unexpected. At least to him. Also, if they were so good friends, why hadn't they told him?

"Hey, Ban."

Ban turns around to see Kazu greet him rather awkwardly. Ban grins back just as awkwardly. There's a pause in which Kazu sits down next to him. His dress shirt is not buttoned all the way up and rumpled and some of the buttons were in the wrong holes and his dreadlocks were pulled back in a lazy ponytail which made Ban notice how much Kazu had changed ever since they had been pulled into this crazy secret mission to save the world. Despite looking so similar to back when Ban got Achilles, there is a completely different aura surrounding the boy and Ban wonders again how he could not have noticed. He's so calm.

Kazu coughed and Ban snapped back into reality.

"I'm sorry!", Ban blurts out.

Kazu massages the back of his neck lazily and scrunches his eyebrows together in an apologetic fashion. "Nah, we're sorry. We should've locked the door or something..", he trails off, "but then again we didn't expect you to drop by either."

"I was too lazy to do school stuff so I went to visit you and your mom sent me to Ami."

There is another pause.

"You could've guessed what we were up to, though, when you heard that."

"What."

"Well, we never really do anything in public, so we have to catch up somehow..."

"Wait-"

"Maybe it would've been better if you had just shot us a message."

Ban flicks Kazu's forehead to make him stop talking and turn his head to him.

"How long exactly have you been going out?"

Kazu simply gapes at Ban before he closes his mouth. "Wait", he says slowly as it begins to dawn on him, "you mean you didn't know that me and Ami ,uh, you know?"

The other simply shakes his head.

"_Damn it!"_, Kazu throws his hands in the air, only to bury them in his hair, "I thought it was so obvious that we didn't have to explicitly say anything about it, I mean we already went on some dates before the stuff with detector-"

"What!", shouts Ban flabbergasted.

"-and we really got together after I came back! It's been so long, damn it Ban, you should have said something!"

Ban wants to retort something but is surprised when Ami sits down on his other side, she is a lot more tidied up than Kazu, her hair all smooth again and luckily wearing something. She sighs and says to Kazu: "I told you that Ban was too busy to notice it, there was too much going on."

Kazu grumbles a bit in response. Something about the whole school already knowing. And he _pouts_.

And it's exactly this that makes him realize that it does not really matter to him, they are still friends and it's these moments that makes them themselves. Kazu messes something up (in spite of his new more adult-y aura) and Ami scolds him and Ban just laughs about it. It's nice and life feels easier with them.

Ban simply takes their hands and lets himself fall back into the soft grass. Ami and Kazu stop arguing surprised and follow his motion (there will probably be bad grass stains on Kazu's white dress shirt). He feels a bit bold as he asks: "So, how far did you go?"

Kazu just splutters but Ami deadpans: "You do realize that we're barely 15?"

There is a pause in which Ban chuckles.

"But if we ever feel experimental we'll call you up and you can join in."

Kazu shoots up but can't get himself to retort anything to that.


End file.
